


Glances Back

by thesometimeswarrior



Series: Flash Fic (A Collection of Drabbles, Double Drabbles, and Triple Drabbles) [47]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Episode: s06e20 The Future, Family, Gen, Triple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:35:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23363308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: There’s a fleeting instant, as he drives away, that—after she thinks of howproudshe is of him, how much she’llmisshim, but howproudshe is of the person he’s become—Pearl thinks of Rose.
Relationships: Pearl & Steven Universe
Series: Flash Fic (A Collection of Drabbles, Double Drabbles, and Triple Drabbles) [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1143650
Comments: 13
Kudos: 94





	Glances Back

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn't resist writing one more short piece based on that finale! (Even if this one is kinda similar to the one I just wrote lol)

There’s a fleeting instant, as he drives away, that—after she thinks of how _proud_ she is of him, how much she’ll _miss_ him, but how _proud_ she is of the person he’s become—Pearl thinks of Rose.

Not in the way that she used to when she looked at him, how—she is ashamed to remember now—her eyes would flit to his Gemstone, and she’d hope that Rose was in there, somewhere, watching.

No, he’s not her, and she has known as much for years, has loved him for the person he is all on his own for even longer. In _this_ moment, she’s not looking for her in him—not thinking of the ways that they’re the same—but instead marvels at how they’re _different_.

When Rose—Pink—left home, it had been because she’d hated how she felt there. Had had people who loved her, but they’d never shown it, and so she’d never felt it. She’d run away, to become the new Gem she wanted to be, and she never once looked back.

Steven, though, has people who love him. And he’s felt it, she’s sure of it. And, though he needs to leave to find and eventually become the person he wants to be, it’s not because he’s _running away_. (He might have, once, but they’d stopped him, embraced him, _we love you, Steven, we love you, just as you are, just as you always are_ , and he’d wept, there in the ocean, surrounded by all of them, swaddled in a blanket that she’d summoned from her Gem.)

No, Steven is moving forward, but, unlike his mother, he glances back in his rearview mirror as he goes, and he _smiles_.

Pearl raises her hand in farewell, hopes that, in the distance, he can see.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
